For your (bowl) consideration, it's 'Godfather' Paterno

November 23, 2009|Mark Wogenrich

Can a Luca Brasi reference guarantee an invitation to a BCS game? Because, really, that's what we're down to now. That and a few thousand hotel rooms and restaurant reservations in South Florida or Tempe, Ariz.

The Big Ten goes dark today, aside from a few nonconference games, and soon the lobbying begins in State College, Iowa City and Big Ten headquarters in Chicago. Barring any post-Thanksgiving dramatics (usually a sure bet in college football), the Big Ten will send two teams to the Bowl Championship Series for the ninth time in 12 years.

Ohio State is guaranteed one of those slots. The other will go to either Iowa or Penn State, the latter of which has three possible bowl destinations: the Fiesta (Jan. 4) or Orange (Jan. 5) bowls, or the non-BCS Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando.

On Saturday, after a 42-14 victory over Michigan State, Penn State coach Joe Paterno fielded questions regarding his team's BCS worthiness. The Lions have the technical requirements (a 10-2 record, the 13th spot in the BCS standings) but can't shake that loss to the Hawkeyes, who also have the technical requirements (a 10-2 record, No. 11 in the BCS).

If this were the NCAA basketball tournament, Iowa would get the higher seed based on that victory, and everyone would understand. But in college football, despite the misleadingly named Bowl Championship Series, eyeballs and wallets rule.

It's important to remember that, outside of the championship game, the BCS bowls still are controlled by regional committees that pride themselves on their business and philanthropic activities. A nice Miami lawyer named Michael Kosnitzky represented the Orange Bowl in East Lansing, where he chatted up Penn State President Graham Spanier and a handful of reporters.

Kosnitzky explained that the Orange Bowl was founded as a civic organization to ''promote local tourism and commerce.'' In fact, the bowl's organizing committees are composed of lawyers and bankers and business owners whose livelihood is that local tourism and commerce. They have something at stake.

So when Paterno and his players said after beating Michigan State that they ''can play with anybody in the country,'' it was nice but didn't matter. Iowa can say the same thing, too. Plus, it moves herds of fans to warm-weather destinations as well as Penn State. When the Hawkeyes played in the 2003 Orange Bowl, their fan base bought more than 47,000 tickets.

''We know when teams travel well and when they don't,'' Kosnitzky said. ''And all the Big Ten teams travel well for us.''

Which is where Luca Brasi comes in. After the game, Paterno was asked to make his case for a BCS invitation. He said this: ''If I could get on the phone and call some people, I could say, 'You owe me. Or, if not, you'd better watch out: There might be a horse's head in your bed.'''

Now, whom do you think the bowl committees think the public wants to see: the genial, skilled, composed coach of Iowa, Kirk Ferentz, or the soon-to-be 83-year-old godfather of college football who makes Godfather references?

There's a perception that the BCS will collapse under the weight of sports-talk radio and threatened congressional hearings and presidential decrees if Penn State is selected over Iowa, or an unbeaten Boise State. Similar feathers were ruffled last year, when 10-2 Ohio State went to the Fiesta Bowl over 12-0 Boise State. And in 2007, when Kansas went to the Orange Bowl ahead of Missouri, to which it lost. The BCS still stands.

After Saturday's game, Paterno laid out the case for Penn State that included praise for fans who move in packs and bring their credit cards.

''We played eight home games and at least sold all the tickets for them [this year],'' Paterno said. ''That's pretty tough, because a couple of games were not exactly national attractions. I think our fans certainly could be a big plus when they start thinking about selecting people.''

But he also said this. In addition to referencing the Godfather, Paterno joked about Texas Tech coach Mike Leach's recent riff on his players' ''fat little girlfriends.''

''I could make statements like fat little girls and girlfriends to stay in the limelight,'' Paterno said. ''ÃÂÃÂ What do you do? I could jump off the roof of my house.''

We've said it before, but it bears repeating. The BCS games value commerce over competition. If there's a choice between Iowa and Penn State -- or, more specifically, between Ferentz and Paterno -- which one is a bowl committee likely to make?